Open and shut case, right? Not so fast. History and shareholder responsibilities might be telling a different story.

Technically, Cubic has nothing to do with Abraxas Applications, which is behind TrapWire. But there are some historical vestiges as well as current shareholder arrangements that make the connections between Cubic, Abraxas Applications and Abraxas Corp. far more muddled than initially portrayed.

Abraxas Corporation's parent company Cubic Corporation issued a statement saying that Cubic -- and its Abraxas Corporation -- have no affiliation with TrapWire, which they say is the product of a separate company, Abraxas Applications.

Cubic Corporation acquired Abraxas Corporation in November 2010 for $124 million. Cubic has three units focused on defense systems, mission services and transportation for military operations. Trapwire's software is designed to thwart terrorist threats and criminal attacks. In other words, Cubic and the two Abraxas companies live in opposite ends of the same neighborhood.

When TrapWire became ready to sell as a commercial product, Abraxas Applications was launched to do so in 2007.

The intent for Abraxas Applications at the outset was to have both Abraxas projects play together under the direction of both companies' former CEO, Hollis Helm, former chief of the CIA's National Resources Division.

As a condition of the merger, these shareholders were made to change the name of Abraxas Applications to something else: it became TrapWire, Inc. Perhaps three different company names breaks the ties between the entitities, but that's doubtful.